$400+ Million Stolen From Coincheck Cryptocurrency Exchange

A Japanese cryptocurrency exchange announced the theft Friday of $400 million in digital currency. Some estimates [fortune.com] put the loss at the Coincheck exchange at over $520 million.

The stolen assets were stored in the cryptocurrency NEM, one of hundreds of digital currencies created in recent years. Bitcoin, the most well-known cryptocurrency, dropped precipitously on news of the hack but has since regained much of its value.

The incident could be one of the largest single losses of cryptocurrency ever, rivaling only the 2014 hack of online exchange Mt. Gox [npr.org]. Reports at the time put Mt. Gox's losses at over $400 million.